Tieing tool

ABSTRACT

A hand tool for tieing objects, such as grape vines, having a pair of pivotally connected levers manually movable toward one another and provided with suitable coacting structure thereon for permitting a small flexible member, such as a U-shaped wire staple, to have the free ends thereof twisted together for bundling the objects together. A staple-holding cartridge is mounted on one lever and disposed opposite a rotatable twisting member mounted on the other lever, which twisting member is disposed for engaging the free ends of an ejected staple for twisting the free ends together. An ejecting mechanism is disposed adjacent the cartridge for ejecting a selected staple, and an actuating mechanism coacts with the ejecting mechanism in response to relative pivotal movement of the levers toward one another whereby the selected staple is automatically ejected and the free ends thereof twisted together.

United States Patent Pardike 51 May 30, 11972 TIEING TOOL Marlow H. Pal-dike, 209 Pine St., Paw Paw, Mich. 49079 221 Filed: Nov. 12, 1970' [21] Appl. No.: 88,814

[72] Inventor:

[52] U.S. Cl. ..140/93 A, 140/119 Primary Examiner Lowell A. Larson Attarneywoodhams, Blanchard & Flynn [57] ABSTRACT A hand tool for tieing objects, such as grape vines, having a pair of pivotally connected levers manually movable toward one another and provided with suitable coacting structure thereon for permitting a small flexible member, such as a U- shaped wire staple, to have the free ends thereof twisted together for bundling the objects together. A staple-holding cartridge is mounted on one lever and disposed opposite a rotatable twisting member mounted on the other lever, which twisting member is disposed for engaging the free ends of an ejected staple for twisting the free ends together. An ejecting mechanism is disposed adjacent the cartridge for ejecting a selected staple, and an actuating mechanism coacts with the ejecting mechanism in response to relative pivotal movement of the levers toward one another whereby the selected staple is automatically ejected and the free ends thereof twisted together.

10 Claims, 10 Drawing Figures Patented May 30, 1972 3,665,978

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 i g; m E- 88 INVENTOR Mp Mw TIEING TOOL FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to an apparatus for twisting together a pair of flexible elements and, in particular, relates to an improved hand tool which is specifically usable with U-shaped staples for enabling the free ends of the staple tobe twisted together after the staple has been partially disposed around a plurality of objects, such as grape vines. 1

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION There has long existed a need for a portable hand tool which can be conveniently and efficiently utilized for bundling together a plurality of articles, such as a plurality of grape vines. At the present time, most grape vines are tied or bundled almost totally manually since the nature of the vines and the manner in which same must be tied normally prevents automatic tieing thereof. While the vines must be manually selected for bundling, nevertheless there has long existed a need for a device which would facilitate this manual tieing of the vines, such as by permitting the manually selected bundle or group of vines to be easily tied together without requiring that a piece of wire or cord be manually wound therearound.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a hand tool which, while it is of general applicability, is specifically suitable for tieing grape vines wherein the vines are first selectively manually grouped together, whereupon the tool according to the present invention then permits a tie wire to be quickly and easily twisted therearound without damaging the vines and while requiring only a minimum amount of effort and time on the part of the user of the device.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a device, as aforesaid, which utilizes a conventional U-shaped wire staple which is sized so as to permit a bundle of vines to be disposed within the staple, whereupon the free ends of the staple are then automatically twisted together so that the staple forms a loop which surrounds and holds together the bundle of vines.

Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a device, as aforesaid, which is relatively light in weight, small in size, and easy to manipulate so that same can be used efficiently and conveniently without becoming entangled within the vines or damaging same, while at the same time not tiring the user.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a device, as aforesaid, which is easy and economical to manufacture and which can be used for long periods of time with relatively no repair of maintenance. Further, the device is preferably provided with an elongated cartridge holder for permitting storage of a plurality of staples, whereupon the device can thus be used for long periods of time without requiring frequent work stopages so as to refill the device with staples. 7

While the present invention, as explained above, is particularly suitable for use in tieing grape vines, it will be recognized that the device of this invention is of general applicability in that it could be used for tieing numerous other types of objects or articles. Further, while the device is specifically disclosed for use as a hand tool, it will be readily recognized that the essential concept and structure of the present invention could also be incorporated into a tieing or bundling machine if so desired.

Other objects and purposes of the invention will be ap parent to persons acquainted with devices of this type upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a side view of one embodiment of a tieing tool constructed according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary top view as taken substantially along the line Il--ll in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line IIl--lll in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary top view as taken substantially along the line IV-IV in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line V-V in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line VI-VI in FIG. 4.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line VII-VII in FIG. 4.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line VIIIVIII in FIG. 4.

FIG. 9 is a side view of a modified tieing tool constructed according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an electrical circuit diagram for the tieing tool illustrated in FIG. 9.

Certain terminology will be used in the following description for convenience in reference only and will not be limiting. The words upwardly," downwardly, rightwardly, and leftwardly" will designate directions in the drawings to which reference is made. The words forward" and rearward" will refer to the rightward and leftward ends of the levers, respectively, as appearing in FIGS. 1 and 9. The words inwardly and outwardly will refer to directions toward and away from, respectively, the geometric center of the device and designated parts thereof. Such terminology will include the words above specifically mentioned, derivatives thereof and word of similar import.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In general, the objects and purposes of the invention are met by providing a hand tool which includes a pair of levers pivotally connected for relative pivotal movement therebetween. The levers are manually movable toward one another and are provided with coacting structure therebetween for permitting the free ends of a U-shaped staple to be twisted together so as to form a loop in surrounding relationship to a plurality of objects, such as a bundle of grape vines. One of the levers is provided with a cartridge holder thereon in which is disposed a plurality of U-shaped staples, which cartridge holder coacts with a movable ejection mechanism for permitting a selected staple to be ejected. The other lever is provided with an actuating mechanism thereon adapted to coact with and actuate the ejecting mechanism when the levers are pivotally moved toward one another. Said other lever also has a rotatable twisting head thereon, which twisting head receives therein the free ends of the staple as the staple is ejected from the cartridge, whereupon the twisting head undergoes rotation relative to the lever for twisting the free ends of the staple together, thereby forming the staple into a loop.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 illustrates therein one embodiment of a tieing tool I1 constructed according to the present invention, which tieing tool is adapted for manual manipulation. The tieing tool 11 specifically includes a pair of crossed levers 12 and 13 pivotally connected immediate their ends by a pivot pin 14. The rearward ends 16 and 17 of the levers function as grip portions for enabling the tool 11 to be manually manipulated, whereas the forward portions 18 and 19 of the levers are provided with suitable structure thereon for enabling a wire, such as a U-shaped staple, to be twisted arounda group or bundle of objects or articles. The levers 12 and 13, for purposes of illustration, are provided with a channel-shaped cross-sectional configuration.

The tool I l specifically includes an actuating mechanism 21 mounted on the lever 13, which actuating mechanism 21 is designed to coact with an ejecting mechanism 22 provided on the other lever 12. The ejecting mechanism 22 causes dispensing or discharge of individual U-shaped wire staples from a staple holding cartridge 23 mounted adjacent the forward end of the lever 12. The ejected staple coacts with a rotatable twisting device 24 mounted adjacent the forward end of the lever 13 for permitting the free ends of the staple to be twisted together.

The staple holding cartridge 23 specifically includes a closed channel-shaped housing 26 which is fixedly secured to the lever 12 adjacent the forward end thereof. The channelshaped housing 26 opens inwardly toward the other lever and extends laterally from the lever 12 in a direction substantially transverse to the longitudinal direction of the lever (FIG. 4). The housing 26 specifically includes inner and outer channelshaped walls 27 and 28 (FIG. 7) which are spaced from one another so as to define an elongated, channel-shaped recess or space 29 adapted to receive therein a row of conventional channel-shaped wire staples 31.

The housing 26 is provided with a stationary front wall 32 (FIG. 6) which is disposed directly over the forward end 18 of the lever 12. The housing 26 also includes a removable end cap 33, which end cap can be provided with any suitable means for permitting same to be releasably connected to the housing 26. In the illustrated embodiment, cap 33 has flanges 34 which overlap the sidewalls of the housing 26, which sidewalls and flanges have cooperating dimples and projections forming releasable detents for releasably securing the end cap to the main housing.

The end cap 33 is provided with a guide pin 36 (FIG. 8) secured thereto, which guide pin extends into the longitudinally along the channel-shaped space 29 defined by the housing 26. A conventional compression spring 37 surrounds the guide pin 36 and resiliently urges a slidable pusher plate 38 into engagement with the rearmost staple for resiliently urging the row of staples forwardly so that the frontmost staple is disposed in abutting engagement with the front housing wall 32. The housing 26 is also provided with a through slot 39 extending through the top and bottom walls thereof directly adjacent the front wall 32 (FIGS. 4-6), which slot has a width slightly greater than the thickness of a staple 31 for enabling the frontmost staple to be ejected from the cartridge 23.

The frontmost staple is ejected from cartridge 23 through the narrow slot 39 by means of the ejecting mechanism 22, which mechanism includes a lever 41 which is centrally pivoted to the forward end 18 of lever 12 by means of a pivot pin 42. The lever 41 is provided with a flat ejecting blade 43 (FIG. adjacent one end thereof, which blade is slidably received within the lowermost portion of the narrow slot 39 for permitting the ejecting blade 43 to contact the lower portion of the frontrnost staple. The other end of lever 41 is provided with an actuating portion 44 and a conventional compression spring 46 coacts between the actuating portion 44 and a lug 47 as secured to the lever 12, whereby spring 46 thus resiliently urges the lever 41 (clockwise in FIG. 5) into an inoperative position whereby the ejecting blade 43 is disposed below the row of staples substantially as illustrated by dotted lines in FIG. 5.

The ejecting lever 41 is actuated by means of the actuating mechanism 21, which mechanism is mounted on the forward end portion 19 of lever 13 and is positioned for contacting and moving the ejecting lever 41 when the levers 12 and 13 are pivotally moved toward one another. The actuating mechanism 21 (FIG. 3) specifically includes an elongated rod or plunger 51 which slidably extends through an opening provided in a guide block 52, which guide block is fixedly secured to the lever 13. A suitable stop plate 53 is secured to rod 51 adjacent the upper end thereof for limiting the downward movement of the rod. A further stop plate 54 is suitably secured to the rod 51 adjacent the lower end thereof, and a conventional compression spring 56 is disposed in surrounding relationship to the rod 51 and is positioned between the stop plate 54 and the forward lever portion 19 for resiliently urging the rod 51 into its downwardmost position, in which position the stop plate 53 is disposed in abutting engagement with the upper end of the guide block 52.

Considering now the twisting device 24, same includes a rotatable twisting member 57 having helical threads on the external periphery thereof disposed in threaded engagement with a support block 57 as secured to the front lever portion 19. The cooperating helical threads on the rotatable twisting member 57 and on the block 58 are preferably of a rather large helix or pitch to permit the twisting member 57 to freely rotate and axially retract (upwardly in FIG. 3) in response to imposition of an upward axially directed force on said twisting member 57. The twisting member 57 has an upwardly projecting guide portion 59 which slidably extends through an opening formed in a stop plate 61, which stop plate 61 constitutes a portion of an inverted U-shaped guide bracket 62. The guide bracket 62 is fixedly secured to the forward lever portion 19. A conventional compression spring 63 is preferably disposed in surrounding relationship to the guide portion 59 and coacts between the stop plate 61 and the shoulder 64 for causing the twisting member 57 to be rotatably moved downwardly into its extended position illustrated in FIG. 3, the downward extension of the twisting member being limited by the head 66 abutting the stop plate 61.

The twisting member 57 is provided with an enlarged head 67 adjacent the lower end thereof, which head is provided with a pair of arcuate recesses 68 adapted to receive therein the free ends of the staple substantially as illustrated in FIG. 5.

The tool 11 is also preferably provided with a weak compression spring 69 coacting between the levers 12 and 13 for normally maintaining or returning the tool to the open position as illustrated in FIG. 1.

OPERATION When it is desired to use the tool 11 for bundling or tieing together a plurality of objects, such as grape vines, the vines will first be disposed within the space 71 defined by the channel-shaped housing 26, the vines being disposed so as to extend across the narrow slot 39. The tool will then be manually squeezed so as to move the grip portions 16 and 17 toward one another, which causes a corresponding swinging movement of the forward lever portions 18 and 19 toward one another whereupon the twisting device 24 is moved downwardly toward the cartridge 23 simultaneous with the downward movement of the actuating mechanism 21 toward the ejecting mechanism 22. This relative movement of the levers 12 and 13 toward one another causes the plunger 51 to contact the actuating lever 41 and move same in opposition to the spring 46 (counterclockwise in FIG. 5), which movement causes the ejector blade 43 to move upwardly into the slot 39 so as to cause the forwardmost staple 31 to be moved upwardly so that its legs extend from the cartridge. Simultaneous with this operation, the twisting member 57 will have moved downwardly to a sufficient extent so that the head 67 will be disposed directly over the cartridge whereby the free ends of the staple 31, as they are ejected above the housing 26, will enter into the curved recesses 68 formed in the twisting head 67.

After the head 67 abuts against the top of the cartridge 23, continued pivotal movement of the levers 12 and 13 toward one another will cause an upward axial force to be imposed on the twisting member 57, which member will then simultaneously rotate and axially retract (upwardly in FIG. 1) due to the cooperating helical threads on the twisting member 57 and block 58, which rotational movement will cause the ends or legs of the staple to be twisted together so that the staple will thus be looped and twisted around the group of vines or similar articles which were initially positioned within the space 71.

During this continued movement of the levers 12 and 13 toward one another, no further pivotal movement of the ejecting lever 41 is possible due to the ejecting lever being held by either a stop or due to the solid height of the spring 46. Accordingly, the additional relative pivotal movement will be compensated for in the actuating mechanism 21 by means of an axial retraction (upwardly in FIG. 1) of the rod 51 in opposition to the resilient urging of the spring 56.

After the twisting operation has been completed, then the manual pressure applied on the grip portions 16 and 17 will be released so as to enable the spring 69 to return the levers into the open position illustrated in FIG. 1. When returned to this open position, the bundle of vines or articles with the staple twisted therearound can then be easily removed or withdrawn from between the forward ends of the levers. As the levers 12 and 13 return to their open position under the urging of the spring 69, the spring 56 will also cause the plunger 51 to return to its lowermost position, and likewise the spring 69 will also cause the twisting member 57 to be rotated in the opposite direction, whereupon the member 57 will be moved back to its original extended position substantially as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3. The tool 1 l is thus again in its original condition and is ready to perform a further binding or tieing operation.

When it is, necessary to reload the cartridge 23 with staples this can be done merely by removing the end cap 33 and with drawing the guide rod 36 and spring 37 and pressure plate 38 associated therewith, whereupon a new column of staples can then be slidably inserted into the channel-shaped space 29, whereupon the end cap and associated spring-urging structure can then be reinserted and mounted on the housing.

While the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1 discloses the use of helical splinescoacting between the rotatable twisting member 57 and the mounting block 58, it will be obvious that suitable helical ball splines could be provided between these two membersif desired so as to further minimize friction and permit free rotation of the twisting member. Further, while a compression spring 63 has been disclosed for returning the twisting member to its original position, it will be apparent that a torsion or spiral spring could also be used for this purpose.

MODIFICATIONS FIG. 9 illustrates therein a modified tool 11A constructed according to the present invention, parts of which will be referred to by the same referencenumeral designating corresponding parts of the tool 11 illustrated in FIG. 1 but with the suffix A added thereto.

Particularly, the tool 11A again includes pivotally connected crossed levers 12A and 13A with the forward end of lever 12A having an ejecting mechanism 22A and a staple holding cartridge 23A mounted thereon. The lever 13A is also provided with an actuating mechanism 21A disposed for coaction with the ejecting mechanism 22A in the same manner as disclosed above.

The tool 11A also includes a twisting device 24A mounted on the lever 13A, which twisting device specifically includes a twisting member 76 rotatably supported adjacent the forward end of the lever 13A, the twisting member again being provided with an enlarged head 67A having suitable recesses therein for receiving the ends of a staple ejected from the cartridge 23A. The twisting member 76 is rotatably supported on the lever 13A in any conventional manner, such as by an antifriction bearing (not shown), and is additionally mounted so as to be restrained from moving axially. Thus, in this embodiment the twisting member 76 is mounted solely for rotational moement.

The twisting member 76 is provided with a gear or toothed portion 77 disposed in meshingengagement with an elongated gear rack 78, which gear rack is fixedly connected to the end of a linearly movable actuating member 79, which actuating member specifically comprises a plunger or armature of an electrical solenoid 81. The solenoid 81 is mounted on the lever 13A and is selectively energized by means of a battery or other suitable power source 82. A tension spring 83 is con nected between the solenoid housing and the rack 78 for normally resiliently urging the rack and the solenoid plunger into its retracted (leftward in FIG. 9) deenergized position.

The solenoid 81 is energized from the battery 82 by the closure of the contacts 86 and 87, which contacts are mounted on the forward end of the lever 12A, the contact 86 being mounted on a resilient conductive leaf member 88, which member is adapted to be resiliently deflected so as to cause contact 86 to be moved into engagement with stationary contact 87. Particularly,'when the ejecting lever 41A is moved downwardly (counterclockwise in FIG. 9), the tab 83 on the lever engages and depresses the leaf member 88 so as to cause contact 86 to move into engagement with contact 87.

In operation of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 9, imposition of a manual pressure on the grip portions of the levers 12A and 13A will cause the levers to be pivotally moved toward one another whereupon the actuating mechanism 21A will contact the ejecting lever 41A and cause the frontmost staple to be ejected upwardly so that the legs of the staple will be received within the slot formed in the head 67A of the twisting member 76. The levers 12A and 13A will be moved toward one another until the head 67A is disposed substantially in engagement with the upper surface of the cartridge 23A. When this position is reached, the ejecting lever 41A will have been moved downwardly a sufficient extent so as to cause contact 86 to be deflected into engagement with contact 87, whereupon battery 82 will energize solenoid 81 so that plunger 79 will then be extended (rightwardly in FIG. 9), whereupon the rack 78 through its engagement with gear 77 will cause rotation of the twisting member 76, which rotation will cause the ends of the staple to be twisted together in surrounding relationship to the group of articles or vines which were initially positioned within the channel-shaped staple.

When the manual pressure is relieved on the levers and the levers are permitted to return to their original open position, the contacts 86 and 87 will again automatically disengage so as to deenergize the solenoid, whereupon spring 83 will then cause plunger 79 and gear rack 78 to be retracted, whereupon twisting member 77 will be automatically returned to its original position. The solenoid 81 can, if desired, be provided with a suitable time delay so as to remain energized for a slight time period after disengagement between contacts 86 and 87 so as to permit the twisted staple to be initially withdrawn from the twisting member prior to the twisting member being rotatably returned to its original position.

Altemately, the solenoid 81 can be provided with a suitable time delay which prevents actuation of the plunger after initial energization of the solenoid, which time delay would permit the contacts 86 and 87 to be closed before the head 67A was disposed directly adjacent the cartridge 23A. Such a positional arrangement would then pennit the twisted staple to be pulled free of the head during release of the device prior to the deenergization of the solenoid due to separation of the contacts 86 and 87.

In the present invention, the twisting member is preferably designed so as to undergo slightly more than one revolution, preferably approximately one and one-half revolutions so as to ensure that the free ends of the staple will be adequately twisted together.

Although a particular preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed in detail for illustrative purposes, it will be recognized that variations or modifications of the disclosed apparatus, including the rearrangement of parts, lie within the scope of the present invention.

The embodiments of the invention in which I claim an exclusive property or privilege are defined as follows:

1. A hand tool for twisting a U-shaped staple around a plurality of articles, comprising:

first and second levers and means pivotally interconnecting said levers for relative pivotal movement about a pivot axis;

cartridge means mounted on said first lever for storing therein a plurality of U-shaped staples, said cartridge means having an opening therein for permitting ejection of a selected staple;

ejector means coacting with said cartridge means for permiting ejection of said selected staple;

actuator means coacting with said ejector means for actuating same to permit ejection of said selected staple; and twisting means mounted on said second lever and disposed opposite said cartridge means for coacting with and twisting together the free ends of the ejected staple, said twisting means including a twisting member and means rotatably mounting said twisting member on said second lever for rotational movement about a rotational axis which is substantially transverse to said pivot axis.

2. A tool according to claim 1, wherein said actuator means includes a spring-urged actuator member movably mounted on said second lever, and said ejector means includes a movable ejector member movably mounted on said first lever and disposed for coaction with and movement by said spring-urged actuator member when said first and second levers are relatively pivoted toward one another.

3. A tool according to claim 2, wherein said twisting member is mounted for both rotational and axial movement relative to said second lever.

4. A tool according to claim 1, wherein said twisting member is interconnected to said lever by means of cooperating helical splines for pennitting simultaneous rotation and axial movement of said twisting member relative to said second lever during twisting of the free ends of the selected staple.

5. A tool according to claim 1, wherein said cartridge means includes an elongated cartridge housing defining therein an elongated channel-shaped space adapted to receive a row of channel-shaped staples, the longitudinal direction of said cartridge housing being substantially parallel to said pivot axis whereby said cartridge housing extends laterally outwardly from said first lever adjacent one end thereof.

6. A tool according to claim 5, wherein said actuator means includes a spring-urged actuator member movably mounted on said second lever, and said ejector means includes a movable ejector member movably mounted on said first lever and disposed for coaction with and movement by said spring-urged actuator member when said first and second levers are relatively pivoted toward one another.

7. A tool according to claim 5, wherein said cartridge housing has a substantially channel-shaped cross-sectional configuration.

8. A tool according to claim 1, wherein said twisting member is provided with circular gear means thereon, an elongated gear rack disposed in meshing engagement with said gear means, and means connected to said gear rack for selectively moving same for causing rotation of said twisting member.

9. A tool according to claim 8, wherein said last-mentioned means includes a solenoid having a movable armature connected to said gear rack for moving same.

10. A tool according to claim 1, wherein said first and second levers cross one another and are pivotally interconnected intermediate the ends thereof. 

1. A hand tool for twisting a U-shaped staple around a plurality of articles, comprising: first and second levers and means pivotally interconnecting said levers for relative pivotal movement about a pivot axis; cartridge means mounted on said first lever for storing therein a plurality of U-shaped staples, said cartridge means having an opening therein for permitting ejection of a selected staple; ejector means coacting with said cartridge means for permiting ejection of said selected staple; actuator means coacting with said ejector means for actuating same to permit ejection of said selected staple; and twisting means mounted on said second lever and disposed opposite said cartridge means for coacting with and twisting together the free ends of the ejected staple, said twisting means including a twisting member and means rotatably mounting said twisting member on said second lever for rotational movement about a rotational axis which is substantially transverse to said pivot axis.
 2. A tool according to claim 1, wherein said actuator means includes a spring-urged actuator member movably mounted on said second lever, and said ejector means includes a movable ejector member movably mounted on said first lever and disposed for coaction with and movement by said spring-urged actuator member when said first and second levers are relatively pivoted toward one another.
 3. A tool according to claim 2, wherein said twisting member is mounted for both rotational and axial movement relative to said second lever.
 4. A tool according to claim 1, wherein said twisting member is interconnected to said lever by means of cooperating helical splines for permitting simultaneous rotation and axial movement of said twisting member relative to said second lever during twisting of the free ends of the selected staple.
 5. A tool according to claim 1, wherein said cartridge means includes an elongated cartridge housing defining therein an elongated channel-shaped space adapted to receive a row of channel-shaped staples, the longitudinal direction of said cartridge housing being substantially parallel to said pivot axis whereby said cartridge housing extends laterally outwardly from said first lever adjacent one end thereof.
 6. A tool according to claim 5, wherein said actuator means includes a spring-urged actuator member movably mounted on said second lever, and said ejector means includes a movable ejector member movably mounted on said first lever and disposed for coaction with and movement by said spring-urged actuator member when said first and second levers are relatively pivoted toward one another.
 7. A tool according to claim 5, wherein said cartridge housing has a substantially channel-shaped cross-sectional configuration.
 8. A tool according to claim 1, wherein said twisting member is provided with circular gear means thereon, an elongated gear rack disposed in meshing engagement with said gear means, and means connected to said gear rack for selectively moving same for causing rotation of said twisting member.
 9. A tool according to claim 8, wherein said last-mentioned means includes a solenoid having a movable armature connected to said gear rack for moving same.
 10. A tool according to claim 1, wherein said first and second levers cross one another and are pivotally interconnected intermediate the ends thereof. 